Carry | My Site

The ultimate tool for engaging your members online

the client

Carry

my role

Product Design
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
Research
Usability Testing
+ More

duration

6 weeks

Carry is an app that helps church members stay connected all week long-- not just on Sunday's.

With digital groups designed for connection, daily Bible studies and discussion, Carry is a great way for members to grow closer to God together.

project overview

Engagement occurs in the Carry app when users complete the daily study with their group reading a passage and answering discussion questions together.

With the original design, we found our user retention rate sat at 5%. Looking to improve this, we performed a design audit and usability tests to identify areas to improve the overall user experience of the app.

the challenge

Due to barriers with the original interface, confusion during onboarding, and a lack of a trigger to pull them back into the app, users are missing their "aha" moment, which has resulted in a low user retention rate and churning by Day 2.

the solution

The redesign of the Carry app and onboarding experience serves to improve the usability by closely guiding users early on and providing a more organized and simplified interface. The addition of the prayer and gratitude prompts to the daily study promotes a trigger for users to pull each other back into the app and continued engagement.

the process

discover

research goals

Identify barriers to completing the daily study flow
Discover group engagement behaviors and motivations
Anticipate the needs and pain points of the target audience

methods

Data analysis
Usability testing
Discovery interviews

data analysis

When looking into our app data in Mixpanel, we discovered the following:

Many group members jumped into the app but did not complete their daily group study
The average user churned by Day 2
The average user retention was 5%
Many new users didn't make it passed the login screen

usability testing

To help better understand the friction exhibited in the data above, we conducted a series of usability tests to observe how users interacted with the current app.

Usability test participants were made up of members of any Bible study group. I had participants download the current Carry app on their phone, share their mobile screen via Zoom and narrate their steps and thoughts as they went through the flow.

Summary of findings:

3/5 participants were blocked by the Premium screen during onboarding and mistakenly believed the app required payment to continue
3/5 participants completely missed the 'Start today's study' button
3/5 participants did not enable notifications during onboarding
4/5 participants were unable to identify what all navigation icons stood for
Talk about how they didn't initially get the purpose of the app

Taking these findings into consideration, our team decided to focus on simplifying the current app design to remove barriers to engagement.

discovery interviews

In order to get a better understanding of successful methods of group engagement, we interviewed 5 members of different Bible study groups to discover patterns of engagement. Our goal was to take these existing patterns and make them accessible in our app, helping members stay connected daily.

Summary of findings:

All participants shared prayer & praise reports in their groups
All participants mentioned a desire to be part of the church community as a reason for joining a Bible study group
3/5 participants had designated check-in time during group
4/5 participants hung out with group members outside of group or church

needs

Safe space to share
Approachable content
Interfaces that are straightforward and easy to understand for all ages

pain points

Busy schedules/ competing priorities
Uneven participation
Lacking discussion questions

desires

Being part of the church community
Learn more about God and the Bible
Consistency and participation
Group vulnerability & trust

define

user goals

We want users to experience the impact of community engagement taking place in the daily study flow, while optimizing usability.

business goals

We want to ensure users make it passed onboarding and successfully complete their daily study well passed Day 2.

user journey map

Taking my observations from usability testing and data pulled, I constructed a journey map for a user measuring their psych levels along the way.

Click the play button to see the user journey

user flow

After going through the user journey, I took a close look at the original flow and identified areas to improve.

original onboarding flow

original daily study flow

project goals

To improve user retention we took into consideration the Fogg Behavior Model
(B= MAP) and identified ways we could optimize each part of the equation.

prioritized tasks

Based on the question posed above, we decided to prioritize the following tasks:

Optimize the onboarding flow to prevent confusion and state clear purpose of app
Redesign the original interface to improve usability
Update notification screen to better emphasize the importance
Develop a prayer and gratitude prompt feature to reactivate users
Simplify the Premium screen and optimize when it is triggered

design

updated onboarding screens

I broke up the onboarding carousel into individual pages so users would not miss the app context. This would help prime them for why notifications are important and what they can expect to experience.

updated notification screens

I refreshed the notification screen to give users an idea of the type of helpful notifications they will receive. I wanted this appeal more to the user's motivations for using the app.

updated user interface

I simplified the app's interface to improve its usability. I moved the top navigation to the bottom of the screen and focused on features that promoted group interaction.

The original design displayed information in a confusing manner, with the new design I wanted it to be very clear to a user what each section represented, so I added headings to each screen.

By adding a designated home screen, users would be better funneled to their daily study with a more prominent CTA button.

updated daily study flow

I updated the daily study flow to be more guided and familiar in design. I also added the new prayer prompt feature to add an extra point of connection for group members.

updated premium screen

I simplified the Premium screen to avoid any confusion for users. Our team decided to minimize the amount of options for pricing. I wanted to make this screen less of a barrier and make the exit clear.

We decided to remove the premium screen from onboarding and have it pop up after Day 2 to ensure the user has experienced the magic of the app before prompting them to upgrade.

test

usability testing

We had users test out a dev version of the app and began usability testing via Zoom. The test was made up of 5 participants who were part of different Bible study groups

Objectives

Test the ease of the app's usability from onboarding to completing daily study
Test the familiarity with the new interface
Identify any navigation problems
Gather feedback of the app

Summary of findings:

Increase in participants making it through onboarding
Increase in participants completing the daily study
Users were more likely to complete the daily study when a prayer prompt was included
Participants enjoyed the prayer feature and were more likely to return to the app when receiving a notification that someone had prayed for them
Participants shared that if a large amount of people shared prayer requests, it became tedious to click through and respond to each one
Older participants were not familiar with tapping on the side of the screens to navigate left and right in the daily study flow (Younger participants were familiar with this gesture)
Slight increase in participants who allowed notifications

iterations

Based on my usability testing, we were able to identify high priority iterations for the product:

Add a guide to teach older users the side screen tapping gesture and increased the clickable sections for easier usability
Limit the amount of prayers shown during the daily study, instead show at most 3 and have a modal pop up after to view the remaining
If prayer requests had low engagement, have these show up in user's daily flow to increase chance of every member's request having a response
Moved prayer requests to the beginning of the study so users could see proof of their group's engagement straight away

See iterations in the prototype below.

results

This project resulted in user retention growing 10x from 5% to an astounding 52%. Our team learned to incorporate habit loops and simple user interfaces to keep retention going strong.

customer testimonial

Joel A'Bell of WeChurch shares how Carry's daily study and prayer & gratitude features helped his digital groups experience engagement like never before.

The ultimate tool for engaging your members online

the client Carry

my role Product Design UX/UI Design​ Prototyping Research Usability Testing + More

duration 6 weeks

Carry is an app that helps church members stay connected all week long-- not just on Sunday's. With digital groups designed for connection, daily Bible studies and discussion, Carry is a great way for members to grow closer to God together.

project overview

the challenge Due to barriers with the original interface, confusion during onboarding, and a lack of a trigger to pull them back into the app, users are missing their "aha" moment, which has resulted in a low user retention rate and churning by Day 2.

the process

discover

research goals

Identify barriers to completing the daily study flow

Discover group engagement behaviors and motivations

Anticipate the needs and pain points of the target audience

methods

Data analysis

Usability testing

Discovery interviews

data analysis When looking into our app data in Mixpanel, we discovered the following:

Many group members jumped into the app but did not complete their daily group study

The average user churned by Day 2

The average user retention was 5%

Many new users didn't make it passed the login screen

usability testing To help better understand the friction exhibited in the data above, we conducted a series of usability tests to observe how users interacted with the current app.

Usability test participants were made up of members of any Bible study group. I had participants download the current Carry app on their phone, share their mobile screen via Zoom and narrate their steps and thoughts as they went through the flow.​

​

Summary of findings:

3/5 participants were blocked by the Premium screen during onboarding and mistakenly believed the app required payment to continue

3/5 participants completely missed the 'Start today's study' button

3/5 participants did not enable notifications during onboarding

4/5 participants were unable to identify what all navigation icons stood for

Talk about how they didn't initially get the purpose of the app

​

Taking these findings into consideration, our team decided to focus on simplifying the current app design to remove barriers to engagement.

discovery interviews

​

In order to get a better understanding of successful methods of group engagement, we interviewed 5 members of different Bible study groups to discover patterns of engagement. Our goal was to take these existing patterns and make them accessible in our app, helping members stay connected daily.

Summary of findings:

​

All participants shared prayer & praise reports in their groups

All participants mentioned a desire to be part of the church community as a reason for joining a Bible study group

3/5 participants had designated check-in time during group

4/5 participants hung out with group members outside of group or church

needs​

​

Safe space to share

Approachable content

Interfaces that are straightforward and easy to understand for all ages

pain points

​

Busy schedules/ competing priorities

Uneven participation

Lacking discussion questions

desires​​

​

Being part of the church community

Learn more about God and the Bible

Consistency and participation

Group vulnerability & trust

define

user goals We want users to experience the impact of community engagement taking place in the daily study flow, while optimizing usability.

business goals We want to ensure users make it passed onboarding and successfully complete their daily study well passed Day 2.

user journey map​ Taking my observations from usability testing and data pulled, I constructed a journey map for a user measuring their psych levels along the way. Click the play button to see the user journey

user flow​ After going through the user journey, I took a close look at the original flow and identified areas to improve.

original onboarding flow

original daily study flow

project goals ​ To improve user retention we took into consideration the Fogg Behavior Model (B= MAP) and identified ways we could optimize each part of the equation.

prioritized tasks​

​

​Based on the question posed above, we decided to prioritize the following tasks:

Optimize the onboarding flow to prevent confusion and state clear purpose of app

Redesign the original interface to improve usability

Update notification screen to better emphasize the importance

Develop a prayer and gratitude prompt feature to reactivate users

Simplify the Premium screen and optimize when it is triggered

design

updated onboarding screens I broke up the onboarding carousel into individual pages so users would not miss the app context. This would help prime them for why notifications are important and what they can expect to experience.

updated notification screens I refreshed the notification screen to give users an idea of the type of helpful notifications they will receive. I wanted this appeal more to the user's motivations for using the app.

updated daily study flow I updated the daily study flow to be more guided and familiar in design. I also added the new prayer prompt feature to add an extra point of connection for group members.

test

usability testing

the client

Carry

my role

Product Design
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
Research
Usability Testing
+ More

duration

6 weeks

Carry is an app that helps church members stay connected all week long-- not just on Sunday's.

With digital groups designed for connection, daily Bible studies and discussion, Carry is a great way for members to grow closer to God together.

the challenge

Due to barriers with the original interface, confusion during onboarding, and a lack of a trigger to pull them back into the app, users are missing their "aha" moment, which has resulted in a low user retention rate and churning by Day 2.

data analysis

When looking into our app data in Mixpanel, we discovered the following:

usability testing

To help better understand the friction exhibited in the data above, we conducted a series of usability tests to observe how users interacted with the current app.

Usability test participants were made up of members of any Bible study group. I had participants download the current Carry app on their phone, share their mobile screen via Zoom and narrate their steps and thoughts as they went through the flow.

needs

desires

user goals

We want users to experience the impact of community engagement taking place in the daily study flow, while optimizing usability.

business goals

We want to ensure users make it passed onboarding and successfully complete their daily study well passed Day 2.

user journey map

Taking my observations from usability testing and data pulled, I constructed a journey map for a user measuring their psych levels along the way.

Click the play button to see the user journey

user flow

After going through the user journey, I took a close look at the original flow and identified areas to improve.

project goals

To improve user retention we took into consideration the Fogg Behavior Model
(B= MAP) and identified ways we could optimize each part of the equation.

prioritized tasks

Based on the question posed above, we decided to prioritize the following tasks:

updated onboarding screens

I broke up the onboarding carousel into individual pages so users would not miss the app context. This would help prime them for why notifications are important and what they can expect to experience.

updated notification screens

I refreshed the notification screen to give users an idea of the type of helpful notifications they will receive. I wanted this appeal more to the user's motivations for using the app.

updated daily study flow

I updated the daily study flow to be more guided and familiar in design. I also added the new prayer prompt feature to add an extra point of connection for group members.

Gather feedback of the app

customer testimonial

Joel A'Bell of WeChurch shares how Carry's daily study and prayer & gratitude features helped his digital groups experience engagement like never before.